HPSEB employees oppose Electricity (Amendment) Bill, call it 'anti-people'

Hamirpur (HP), Dec 30 (PTI) The Joint Action Committee of Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) employees, engineers, and pensioners organised a convention here on Tuesday to express firm opposition to the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2025.

The committee demanded immediate withdrawal of the Bill and called for the recognition of electricity as a social right rather than a market commodity. Other demands included a complete halt to privatisation and the retention of cross-subsidies.

The committee described the proposed Bill as "anti-people, anti-worker, and anti-federal," pledging to resist it in the larger public interest.

Hira Lal Verma, joint coordinator of the action committee, said the government's own explanatory note for the Bill admits failure. He noted that after 22 years after the Electricity Act, 2003, the power distribution sector remains under severe financial stress despite extensive structural reforms.

"Cumulative losses of distribution utilities have ballooned from Rs 26,000 crore to an alarming Rs 6.9 lakh crore during this period," Verma said. He added that despite this bitter experience, the government has persistently attempted to amend the Electricity Act since 2014.

Verma characterised the 2025 version of the Bill as "more regressive than previous drafts. He said instead of addressing the genuine problems of the sector, the Bill is designed to facilitate large-scale privatisation and centralisation. He claimed it poses a threat to the financial sustainability of public utilities, consumer rights, the federal structure and the livelihoods of power sector employees.

He said a key provision of the Bill permits multiple distribution licensees in the same area using a common public network, under the guise of "competition" and "consumer choice." Verma argued that in Himachal Pradesh, this will allow private companies to "cherry-pick" high-revenue industrial hubs like Baddi, Nalagarh, Kala Amb. This would leave HPSEBL to serve low-revenue rural and domestic consumers. At present, nearly 64 per cent of HPSEBL's revenue originates from these industrial areas.

The committee warned that losing this revenue would severely cripple the utility, especially since HPSEBL would remain responsible for maintaining and upgrading the entire distribution infrastructure.

"This 'separation of carriage and content' model will destroy cross-subsidy mechanisms and result in higher tariffs for domestic consumers," committee members said. They added that the ongoing smart metering programme is being used as a technological prerequisite to facilitate multiple licensing and private entry.

The committee also highlighted that the proposed insertion of Section 43(4) empowers regulatory commissions to allow consumers with a load above 1 MW to migrate to private suppliers.

Verma argued this would let private licensees evade universal service obligations, allowing them to refuse supply where it is not commercially viable.

In a hill state like Himachal Pradesh, where supply costs are high due to geography, the committee members warned that removing cross-subsidy would lead to steep tariff hikes for the poor and rural, populations.

They added that the amendments represent an assault on the federal structure by concentrating power at the Centre and imposing a uniform, corporate-driven electricity policy on the states.

Power Minister Manohar Lal held a meeting with a panel of Members of Parliament on December 20 to discuss proposals of the Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which had been released by the ministry for stakeholder consultation. PTI COR BPL AKY